Hydrocarbon based fuels (including petroleum products, natural gas, etc.) have been, and remain, a major source of global energy production. Projections of global oil reserves, the desire to provide more “green” or environmentally friendly energy, and many other issues have motivated individuals, companies and governments to research possible energy production alternatives. These research and development efforts have included the search for improved techniques, systems and methods for producing energy from existing, known energy sources. For example, efforts have been made regarding the ability to extract oil located in geophysical locations that are difficult to reach using conventional technology. Additionally, efforts have been made to make existing energy processes more efficient, more cost effective, and more environmentally friendly.
Other efforts have focused on extracting energy from reserves that have largely been ignored in the past. In some cases, these resources or reserves have been ignored because they are not as carbon rich as other available resources. In other instances it is simply more difficult to convert the resource into a usable form of energy. For example, substantial efforts have been made to extract oil from sources such as tar sands and oil shale. While technically feasible, extraction of oil from such sources in the past has conventionally been considered inefficient and ecologically unfriendly.
Current research has also focused on potential new sources of energy as well as improvement of other existing alternative energy sources. For example, efforts to improve solar technology, wind energy production, bio-fuel production and hydrogen production are all ongoing. However, as those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize, all of these efforts are met with various obstacles, some economical, some political, and some scientific.
As such, it is an ongoing desire to provide new sources of energy, to improve energy extraction efforts, and to improve existing processes and techniques so as to provide energy more efficiently, more abundantly, and in a more environmentally friendly manner.